For Evelyn By Wayne_Sharpe

"Every heart no matter how big or how small, no matter how young or old or even how good or bad, every heart has a soul, every heart has a light at its centre.
It has long been understood among many that evil is an affliction only suffered by those who allow that light to grow dim and go out.
Those that allow themselves to sink into the depths of darkness can only be saved by rekindling that flame and lighting up their heart once more"

1933 AD.
Tennessee.
The road ahead was awash with rain. It poured down so fast Jack could barely see where he was going. The white painted lines that marked the limits of the tarmac vanished in to the greyness. Out the corner of his eye he could see that the passing scenery which had been clear as daylight minutes earlier was now hidden behind the curtain of torrential rain.

Jack kept his foot hard down on the accelerator and forged on as fast as he dared. With frantic eyes he snatched glances into the rear-view mirror. He could see nothing behind but the dark angry clouds of the following storm. Jack knew the devil was back there racing after him, this was his storm after all.

Up ahead a light cut its way through the blank grey curtain like a beckoning light at the end of a tunnel. Jack watched transfixed as the single point of bright light split into two blinding beams, headlights! In panic, at the last moment Jack swerved back into his own lane.

"Oh Shiiit!"

As the fast approaching car sped past blasting it horn madly, for a fraction of a second Jack stared into the eyes of the angry face of the other driver and it seemed as if time had slowed almost to a standstill. Jack watched as the man removed the cigarette from his mouth to shout something obscene behind his window but Jack could not hear. Time spun back up and the man and his car disappeared behind, into the storm.

Jack held the steering wheel in his own personal death grip and swore at his reflection in the windscreen. He told himself that he must keep his concentration fixed on the road ahead and forget what was chasing after him. Unable to follow his own advice, Jack glanced back into the rear mirror and caught a glimpse of something red and glowing far behind and it wasn't the tail lights of the angry man's car, this light was getting closer, fast.

"Damn!"

Jack cursed, he thought he had more time before his inevitable capture. Reaching over to the passenger seat he placed a hand on the bundle of rags and felt the warmth emanating from within.

"Don't worry, we'll be with father McGinley soon"

The glowing red light continued to follow as Jack swerved around bend after bend in the rain. The Studebaker's white walled tires screech in agony as they desperately clung for all their worth to the roads wet surface.

The further Jack raced the darker the evening became, until the rain that all but blinded him became itself as black as the night it now fell.

Nervously glancing up into the rear-view mirror Jack could see that the red glowing light was growing much closer. He looked down at the bundle beside him, he knew that the chapel and their salvation was still over ten minutes away. Anxious sweat ran into his eyes and he thought,

"Oh crap, this is going to be close, too bloody close"

His nerves already on a knifes edge, Jack was startled as the Motorola radio screeched and whistle to life all by itself. He watched as the radio's Bakelite knob turned and the dial's white needle wavered between frequencies all by itself. He felt the temperature in the car drop markedly. His breath clouded as he exhaled and the windows began to fog.

The radio's speakers burst into life, and a voice screeched with ear-splitting agony,

"Why do you run, there is nowhere you can hide, not from me!"

As the words echoed in Jacks head like a hammer striking an anvil he winced in pain and swerved on to the grass verge. Battling against the pull of the tires as they sank into the soft grass, Jack managed to wrenched his way back onto the road and floor the accelerator.

Again he swerved side to side as the voice sent needles of pain stabbing in to his brain.

"You dare steal from me and think you can avoid the consequences. Give back what you have taken and I may spare you all of the pain as you descend the many levels to my inferno"

Jack shook his head furiously and screamed in to the rear-view mirror at the now eclipsing redness,

"Not a chance. Take me if you must, but I won't allow you to take... to take..." Jack bit his lower lip as memories he'd long tried to suppress were forced up to the surface "...Evelyn"

The speakers rattled as the terrible voice screeched "Her soul is lost, therefore it belongs to me, as does yours when your time comes"

Jack shook his head and wrenched the steering wheel around to the side and sent the car hurtling off of the main road and down a small trackway. The storm had slackened enough for him to read the road sign as it flew past,

"Saint Augustine's church, 5miles"

The red glowing light filled the whole mirror now and jack knew that no matter how fast he could go they weren't going to make it.

The road was rough and the car bounced violently up and down with every pothole it could find. Jack held on for dear life in more ways than one.

In desperation Jack scream out "Go away, leave us be. You can't have her! If you need a soul take me instead!"

Jack cried in anger as he guided the car through a tunnel made by the tree canopy. With a weak voice, he begged,

"Please! Don't take her, she has suffered enough!"

The deep red light now enveloped the whole car in its mist. Jack couldn't see a single thing through the windscreen, he was completely blind. He realized that he was still at least a mile from the chapel and slamming on the breaks he brought the Studebaker to a screaming halt within an inch of a large Cedar.

With no time to waste he threw open his door, grabbed the glowing bundle from the passenger seat and ran blindly into the red mist. He guessed that he was roughly going in the right direction, but he also knew that taking the road on foot was the long way to salvation. With fast but cautious steps Jack stumbled down the grass bank into the field and hopefully towards St.Augustins. Careful where he stepped Jack skipped and dodge around the fields bulbous crops.

No longer needing to use the car radio to speak, the terrible and grating voice echoed all around.

"You know that I have to take her, you know she is a sinner. You know she damned herself the moment she killed her child, your son! I am here to take back what you stole. Return to me the Lamp of Souls, JACK!"

As the voice hollered his name, Jack turned to look over his shoulder and from out of the red mist he saw the cloaked figure of the Grim Reaper glide freely in the air. With a raised skeletal finger Grim pointed down at him and commanded "Obey me, NOW!"

Jacks foot snagged on a hidden root and sent him tumbling head over heels down to the ground among leaves and vines. The glowing bundle in his hands rolled free and continued to roll until it was beyond his reach.

No longer beneath its covering the Lamp of Souls came to rest upright against a small orange pumpkin. Jack lay sprawled on his stomach and stared directly into the burning eye sockets of the skull lamp. Within the light he could make out small shadowy shapes darting back and forth like flies in a jar. He knew that these were no mere flies, but rather they were the lost souls of the Reaper.

On hands and knees Jack scuttled forward, grabbed hold of the lamps leather handle and tried to stand and run onward. Looking ahead he could see the light of the chapel only a little further across the field. Evelyn's salvation!

Grim's terrible screeching voice was right beside his ear now. If any other voice had spoken, Jack would have felt their breathe on his neck, but he knew that Grim did not breath.

"STOP!"

Like an ice cold vice Jack felt cold fingers of bone wrap around his wrist and lift him painfully in to the air like a ragdoll.

Now face to skull, Jack stared into the black eye sockets of Grim. He knew he should be scared for his life but Jack had long given up on the wish to live, ever since his wife had killed their son and taken her own life. He was far more scared of failing to save his wife's soul from the Reapers lamp.

Grim, with Jack dangling from his grip, demanded,

"Give back the lamp"

Jacks arm screamed in agony as his weight stretched his should almost out of its socket. But he still held the lamp tight to his chest in refusal.

"No! You'll have to kill me first" he yelled with his remaining strength.

Grim pushed his skull into Jacks face and growled "Give me the lamp now!"

Jack thought frantically "Why does he keep asking me for the lamp? He's death! He could easily take it from me, can't he?"

Jack thrust his own face forward and with realization, said,

"You can't take it from me can you, why?"

Grim lowered himself down out of the air until his robe trailed on the ground and without warning let go of Jack.

Jack landed with a thud and groaned in pain. He sat himself up still holding the skull lamp. Looking up from where he sat stunned, he asked Grim,

"So you can't just kill me and take the lamp, right! You need me to give you the lamp of my own free will, is that it?"

After a long thoughtful pause, Grim nodded his skull and said with a slightly less painful voice,

"That is right. Whomever holds the lamp has the power of the lamp. You are the soul collector as long as you possess the lamp. You have to give back the lamp of your own volition. If you do not, you will be damned to collect the souls of the lost for centuries"

Suddenly a thought struck Jack and with a glint of hope, he asked "So I have the power to take souls, do I have the power to release souls from the lamp?"

Grim shook his skull "No! It is forbidden to release a soul once it has been collected. You have to return the Lamp to me"

Jack shook his head tiredly "I can't do that yet. First I must take it to the Chapel, there Father McGinley will hopefully be able to free my wife from the lamp and only then will I willingly return it to you"

Grim slowly, almost comically shrugged his shoulders,

"I do not understand why it is so important to you that I free your wife's soul. She killed your son, she smothered him with his own pillow as he slept and afterwards she took her own life by jumping from the Austin Peay Bridge and was washed away. Why would you wish to save her soul from the hell she so richly deserves"?

Jack, his face ashen, closed his eyes and shook his head sadly. Opening them again Jack spoke as tears spilled down his cheeks,

"Our son Toby, was ill, very ill. We took him to doctor after doctor trying to find a cure. We travel for hundreds of miles in every direction but found no one who could help. At last we returned home to make our little Toby's last days as comfortable as possible. But that was not to be. We cared for him as his illness ravaged his tiny body, as he suffered agonizingly every minute of the day. He screamed so much and thrashed so hard he broke his brittle bones. Eventually for his own good we had to tie him down. The doctor prescribed opioid to knock him out, to relieved his suffering, but even that eventually failed to help"

Jack dabbed his face "One night, an especially long and upsetting night, Toby screamed in pain for hours. Evelyn cared for him, gave him the opiates and cried with him in her arms as her heart broke repeatedly. We knew that Toby was near the end by then and that all we were doing was drugging our little boy to keep him subdued until the that end. But he was suffering far more than anyone should ever have to suffer and although the end was very near it was also terribly faraway"

Wiping his face Jack continued,

"Well, on that night it finally became too much for Evelyn too bare and with the love only a mother can give she gave Toby enough opiate to knock him out. Holding our little boy in her arms she ended his suffering once and for all. After what must have been hours of cradling him, she left our little boy at peace in his bed. She came to our room and kissed me goodnight as I lay asleep and left me to. Two day later her body was found down river"

Now exhausted and weary Jack said,

"She didn't murder our son! She set him free, she gave Toby peace"

Jack lowered his head and sobbed "Please spare her, let her have peace. I know she committed sinful acts, but she deserves her chance in purgatory, where she will be able to atone for them and finally earn her place in heaven, to be with our little boy"

Grim stood silently until Jacks sobs subsided and said,

"A very sad story I'm sure, but it is not the first such story I have heard and it will not be the last. She committed her soul to hell as soon as she took your sons and her own life, from that there is no going back" Grim paused and his voice trailed off as he considered an alternative option,

"Unlessss....."

Jack jumped at the small glimmer of hope in Grim's far gentler voice,

"Unless what, please I'll do anything"

Grim's faceless skull bobbed up and down as he spoke,

"For many centuries now I and other soul collectors like me, have struggled with the sheer volume of the sinful dead. Between the increasing of population and the growing frequency of wars the number of lost souls has increased exponentially. For the past century I have been recruiting willing souls, who for a chance of redemption would join me. To redeem your wife's soul would you be willing to spend five hundred years between life and death in the netherworld?"

With not a moment's thought Jack shouted "Yes, yes I would, I will. Set her free of the lamp, let her rest with our son for eternity and I will remain with you"

"For five hundred years you will travel between this world and the netherworld collecting souls that have chosen to let their lights dim and extinguish. As your time comes to an end and your lamp grows full, you will take them down to the hell they forged in life. Only when you have completed your task will you be allowed to travel on to whatever afterlife you deserve"

Jack stepped forward "And in return you promise to set Evelyn free?"

Grim reached out his bony fingers and beckoned for the lamp "first you must return the lamp and then you must forfeit your life of you own free will and by your own hand"

Holding the skull lamp to his face Jack looked at the flitting shadows within the fire and then up at Grim. With a last look back into the lamps light, Jack saw familiar eyes staring back at him, eyes he had loved for many years. Although nothing was said Jack felt an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude. Jacks heart broke as he watched Evelyn drift happily away and whispered after her,

"Goodbye my love!"

Jack held out the lamp and said,

"I'm ready"

Taking hold of the proffered lamp, Grim waited in silence as Jack laid himself down.

Jack withdrew a small knife from his pocket, rolled up his sleeves and as he looked up at the silver moon high above he cut across both wrists and released his life. As he waited for his life to drain from his wrists and soak in to the ground, he thought of his little Toby and of Evelyn and smiled sadly.
He didn't have to wait long before he felt his last moment finally arrive. Jack closed his eyes as a red mist settled over him.

Grim stood over Jacks dead body and holding out of a hand called him forth.

"Your life is at an end, your death has just begun, now rise!"

Jack sat up and then pushed himself to his feet and then rose several feet above the ground. Looking down at his own body lying among the pumpkin plants, he realized he was actually dead.

Jack left his body behind and asked Grim "Now what?"

Grim drifted closer "You are no longer that what you once were, now you have become a collector of souls. You must now choose a name and a lamp and become that which you will be"

Jack nodded "Yes, I guess I'll have to get myself a skull like yours then, I don't know, maybe call myself, Jack the Reaper! No pun intended!"

Grim slowly shook his cowled head and dismissed Jack's suggestion,

"No! When I became a collector of souls many millennia ago I used the nearest thing I could find as my lamp and as I was in a graveyard when I was called, a skull became my lamp. And as I was a farmer in life, I was no longer a reaper of crops but of souls"

Grim pointed at the ground "Use what is nearest"

Jack looked at what Grim was pointing at, raised a questioning eyebrow and asked "A pumpkin, really?"

Grim raised his hand and a large orange pumpkin rose into the air and over to Jack.

"And now you become what you will be"

Jack felt the weight of a black high collard coat settle over his shoulders. An itch covered his entire body. Lifting up his hands he almost screamed as he watched his skin dissolve away to be replaced by long thin skeletal hands. Horrified yet curious Jack carried the pumpkin Grim had given him and floated over to his car. There he stared dumbfounded at his reflection in the windscreen.

Staring back at him was an orange pumpkin face, its eye's nose and jagged mouth all lit from within by a deep red flame, all set atop a skeleton figure holding a pumpkin lamp. Surprised, Jack yelped and in the windscreen the pumpkin head yelp back.

Jack turned back too Grim and asked "And my name?"

Grim began to disappear into the red mist and at the last, spoke,

"A collector of souls must choose a name that will warn of his coming"

Jack thought for a good long moment before raising a bony finger into the night air and with a terrible screeching voice, screamed

"JACK 'O' LANTERN!"